


the lands above and below

by bokutoma



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Gen, Mentioned Sothis (Fire Emblem), Pre-Canon, zanado
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:35:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25520695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bokutoma/pseuds/bokutoma
Summary: Is Seiros sorry that it’s come to this? Maybe one day she’ll regret this path. For now,though, with the phantom sensation of Nemesis’s blood still beneath her fingernails, she burnsquietly. Her fury is dampened by the heavy rain of her tears, but despite this, it refuses to beextinguished.What had they hoped for when they ripped a goddess from her place in the heavens,when they tore her from her children? A better life?Well, she has made sure that such a thing isn’t coming to them.
Relationships: Rhea & Sothis (Fire Emblem)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12
Collections: In Time’s Flow





	the lands above and below

**Author's Note:**

> this is one of my pieces from the excellent zine i worked on, fe3h.fm! if you like this, you should download the album: i promise, everyone there is at least twice as talented as i am
> 
> download here

For a saint with the burden of leadership to bear, what is the point of a grief that does not  mobilize?  Seiros desperately wishes she knew the answer. Her vengeance sealed, her mother’s heart  returned, and what does she have to show for it? Nothing but a few more scars and a pain that  knows no end, jagged and rough against all that had formerly been unblemished. 

At least that bastard Nemesis is dead. These foolish Agarthans, who sought to control a  force they did not deserve; there is nothing that remains of their failure but stinking corpses and  jagged scars. Blood carves new wounds into the rock faces of Zanado, just as the acrid scent of  burning flesh claws its way into the nose of any unfortunate enough to be near the remainders of  the carnage. 

Is Seiros sorry that it’s come to this? Maybe one day she’ll regret this path. For now,  though, with the phantom sensation of Nemesis’s blood still beneath her fingernails, she burns  quietly. Her fury is dampened by the heavy rain of her tears, but despite this, it refuses to be  extinguished. 

What had they hoped for when they ripped a goddess from her place in the heavens, when they tore her from her children? A better life? Well, she has made sure that such a thing isn’t coming to them. If she cannot have it, why, with their arrogant delusions, should they? Why should it matter if their sons and daughters, their mothers and fathers, their lovers and friends all perish? They do not deserve to taste happiness after what their brethren have done. 

Would Sothis say any differently? Perhaps. Instead, she might have suggested empathy,  even leniency for these accursed children of slaughter and base instinct. 

That’s the point, though, isn’t it? She’s  _ not  _ here, and while she may have adopted the  Agarthans, the Nabateans are her true children, Seiros her true daughter. 

Matricide has been paid in kind a thousand times over, but Seiros cannot bring herself to regret even the loss of her own kin. What else could she have done? _Let_ the monster that took away all that was good and holy in this world walk free, grinning wildly with blood in his teeth and Sothis’s sword at his back? _Allow_ that wretched scum to propagate, feeling no sting of guilt or lash despite the unspeakable atrocities he committed? _Absolve_ his people of their shared blame in allowing this villainous demon to be shaped by their own hands? 

No, there had never been any other option, no other way for the story of the Nabateans and the Agarthans to come to its end, save for Seiros herself to bring them to heel and crush them under her boot. It’s what her mother’s memory deserves, what it had cried for in the marrow of Seiros’s bones, nesting in her entrails and pecking at her liver until she had acted. Pretty words like _absolution_ and _redemption_ mean nothing when all that is left of her mother is tied to a chain around her neck, weighing her down like an unbalanced anchor. 

For what else could she have done? 

The only other move she could have made that would have solved even a measure of this infinite crime would have been to be there herself, to have crushed that worm’s throat in her own hands before he could even come close. Instead, Seiros failed, and this is a mistake she will not make again. 

So what is the point of a grief that does not mobilize? 

She will never have to know. 

**Author's Note:**

> i'm on twitter @kingblaiddyd


End file.
